Parakuihi

parakuihi: breakfast. As in, kua whakareri tōku wahine i te parakuihi or my wife has prepared breakfast.


Dunedin continues to be an exciting and promising place to live. The last few weeks have seen some glorious weather, and we took a lovely trip to St Kilda to visit the ocean there. It is only a short bus ride away and promises some awesome surfing opportunities despite the threat of sharks (including white pointers, or "porkers" as Quint calls them, Hooper would say: "It's a Carcharadon carcarias, it's a Great white"). But Jaws quotes aside, the risk has got to be low, right?




The worm farm is slow to start as the little wormies chomp through the coconut husk bedding they were provided with and shun the relatively unpalatable kitchen scraps. I hope to wean them off the coconut within the next few weeks so we can start putting most of our green waste in there, rather than ini the straightforward compost heap. Whether you like it or not, I will keep you posted! We have also planted peas and spinach and have a healthy coriander plant growing. That's really exciting because it is supposedly quite hard to grow in colder climes.

Ellen has been very busy at work and has been enjoying fitting our new place with furniture and bits and pieces of kitchenware etc. It is all looking very good and we hope to be buying a nice couch soon so we can enjoy the winter evenings in front of our open fire. Both of us are thinking of the wedding nect year and how awesome it is going to be to have friends and family all together. Also, we happy many of the travellers from overseas will be able to stay with us here in Dunedin as part of their trip and to enjoy some of Otago's famous attractions.

I have joined a football team called Mornington and hope to get into the first team this season. It is a small side and not expected to do well. Come on the underdogs!

whakairi(a)

whakairi(a): to hang, as in e whakairia ana ngā kākahu horoi e taku wahine.
The washing is being hung by my wife.

We took a drive out to Taieroa head this week. There was an official welcome for Ellen and so her managers from Wellington were in Dunedin, it was the perfect opportunity to do some sight-seeing!

There is a stone embankment all the way around the peninsula which was originally built by convicts from the Parihaka settlement of Maori in the North Island. These Maori used passive resistance against the encroachment of Europeans, and were essentially enslaved after a bloody attack by men on horseback and were then transported around New Zealand. Many ended up down here breaking rocks and building the roadway.

At the end of the peninsula there are the remains of a pa, which were Maori hill forts, which was built to defend the area when successive waves of Maori were moving South from the North Island. There is also a British-built cannon underneath the hill which was installed to protect Dunedin from invasion by the Russians (?!) Repeated clearing of the native bush on Taieroa head has produced a habitat suitable for nesting of the Royal Albatross and there is now protection of the site for these magnificent birds. On the rocks below the head we saw sea lions and a yellow-eyed penguin, one of the world's rarest. Awesome!



At the bottom of our street is St Joseph's Cathedral (above) which is one of Dunedin's most magnificent buildings. The original plans inicluded a 60 metre spire but repeated attempts to complete that section have met problems, with insufficient foundation work being the current bug-bear.

Ellen and I often joke that we wish we lived further down the hill so that we could look out on St Joseph's, rather than the local high-school gymnasium, a monolith of concrete, which is our main vista from the living room.

Our front balcony does get a nice view of the harbour if you crane your neck. It is now home to my first worm farm which is a good alaternative to composting that I am trying out.

Taonga

taonga meaning treasure or thing of importance

view down the hill from our front door

I am spending my days shopping for bits and pieces that we need around the home, and doing research for a job application which is coming up. Our house is tidy, and quite pleasant. We are looking forward to bulking up with some furniture for upstairs and some dining room chairs. We are sitting on garden chairs at the moment!

I have been in touch with a local builder who is converting a Dominican Priory into a Motel. We think he is working for the same people who run the Brother's hotel here in Dunedin, which was also a monastery prior to its current use. Ellen is a fan of the Brother's and so I might see if I can get some experience working on the restoration of the priory. It sounds like an interesting job. Currently I am hoping to get an interview with the local council for a job.

We have decided on February 9th of next year for our wedding. This means that the weather will be reasonably better than January. More settled at least. We are hoping to confirm the venues over the next week or so. It is all quite exciting.